Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Temptd is an iPhone app that harnesses the power of social networks to strengthen personal willpower. Created by Frog Design, it is offered as a tool for followers of MTV's new docu-series 'I Used To Be Fat'.

According to the teaser site:

Whether you're struggling with weight loss or smoking, Temptd connects you with a community of people who are facing similar challenges. This free app uses game play to make it easy and fun to make smart choices, track your progress, and compete with others for willpower and karma points.

Temptd is a unique platform that combines Facebook with mobile technology to improve your long-term health and wellbeing through active social engagement.

Apps like Temptd bring the support of our social networks to us when they are most needed. We reach for our mobile device to feel connected just as much as to accomplish a task. The phone call is giving way to increasingly micro interactions such as hearting photos on Instagram or cheering Facebook friends on via Nike+. According to Paul Saffo, the smaller the quantum of creative act you ask of participants, the more they will participate. That split second it takes to "like" a friend's status update has the power to positively change behavior over time.

What is gutter tech? According to Nathan Martin and Eamae Mirkin of Deeplocal, it’s the “bridging of real and digital in unconventional ways.” It is the Internet of Things being harnessed for storytelling. For advertisers, it’s what comes after digital or “post-digital.” While those of us in the industry struggle to define this emerging practice, we should remind ourselves that for those experiencing it, it’s simply magic.

Pittsburgh-based Deeplocal makes magic look easy. For the World Cup, they helped Nike rig Johannesburg’s fourth tallest building, transforming it into a canvas for global participation.

Detroit [Re]Design describes it well:

Made up of 207,520 LEDS spanning a linear distance of 1.5 miles, this giant LED installation displayed up to 100 messages from football fans around the world each night for the duration of the campaign.

Every day fans could submit their 57-character personal message to over 50 of Nike’s sponsored athletes from around the world via Facebook, Twiter, Mixit (South Africa) and QQ (China). Messages were displayed on the Life Center wrap between 6pm and 6am daily.

By doing this, Nike and its agencies successfully tapped into the deep human desire to connect and to be heard. They fed the ideas of hope and global progress felt around the World Cup. Not only did the stunt earn press, it enabled people around the world to participate in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

This theme continues across the rest of Deeplocal's portfolio. Nike's Chalkbot and EA Sports' Balls to the Brits both let people connect in interesting ways. To provide conference-goers with the first-hand "gutter tech" experience, the duo constructed the setup seen above. A user's voice would control the elevation of a floating orange ball; keeping its visual representation within the on-screen cross-hair results in a high score.

Other companies are emerging to creatively bridge the digital and physical worlds. Tinker London makes magic for brands like the BBC, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. Founder Alex Deschamps-Sonsino told us how Arduino, an open-source electronics platform, lets anyone get involved. Breakfast is a similar company that has programmed toys that tweet. They are responsible for the "Conan Auto-Foursquare-ing Blimp."

Earlier this year, Adidas released its answer to Nike+: an iPod-connected pedometer and platform called miCoach Pacer that aims to be your personal coach and trainer. Yesterday, the company began offering a free miCoach app for iPhone and BlackBerry users--no additional hardware required.

According to Fast Company:

Rather than simply collect data, the free app provides workouts and conditioning pegged to specific sports, including tennis, soccer, and football, among others. "Everyone needs a coach," says Andy Graham, director of miCoach mobile, who gave Fast Company a demo last week. "You really need someone running alongside you."

Adidas miCoach gives runners a real-time audible training system, which features pace-triggered voice coaching and personalized workout plans designed by professional trainers. The app will tell you how fast to run and how much distance you have to go.

While the application doesn't monitor your heart rate, it still collects plenty of information about your physical activity. Like RunKeeper, a similar free app, miCoach uses the iPhone's GPS to track a runner's location and visualize routes using Google Maps. Speed, distance, and elevation are also mapped using a phone's built-in sensors.

Releasing the miCoach app for free is a smart move, but an existing and active community gives Nike+ a huge head start. Social activity around a service acts as a gravitational force; Adidas' miCoach Forum seems forced when compared to Nike's social challenges and group-based feedback loops. On Nike+, over eight thousand people participate in "Men vs. Women", where each gender compete to run the most kilometers over 365 days. Four and a half thousand are working to earn the fastest kilometer by the end of the year. This social component gives Nike an edge and is an obvious pull for potential users.

That being said, there are those who will be satisfied with Adidas' service and its ability to track as well as coach. The $0 price tag will likely encourage trial, and perhaps more "quantifying themselves". As smartphones become the new norm, so will our drive to constantly monitor, measure, and optimize ourselves. Looking back, we'll find that acting without this data feels like stumbling through the dark.

When it comes to the Internet of Things, Nike+ is probably the most cited example of successful consumer application. In fact, Adweek named it Digital Campaign of the Decade last December. Together, a $20 sensor, iPhone/iPod, and iTunes enable users to track their running progress and compile a quantified self.

We've said it before: If anyone can make wearable computing cool, it's Nike. They've already triggered change by making the connected shoe a reality. Now we look to designers, hackers, and artists who have been reprogramming Nike+ sensors to provide insight into what could be next.

In early June, Fast Company reported on Nike+ 26, a project by designer Michael Robinson. Using the Nike+ sensor, Michael not only collected running data, but was able to visualize it in a glanceable fashion. Every mile the wearer runs, one of the 26 lights turns on, symbolizing progress during a marathon.

My idea is about exploring the broadcasting of the NIKE+ information that has so far always remained private to each runner. For each mile you run, a light goes on from the back of the trainer to the front so that when you pass someone running, they know you’re faster and have gone further.

Michael considered not only the collection of data, but also its use. We are reminded of the importance of feedback loops, the value in the architecting and presenting of data in ways that affect behavior.

Another interesting hack for your Nike+ shoes involves Foursquare. Casey Halverson's setup lets him to automatically check-in to a venue by just walking in the front door. How he does this is extremely rudimentary, but it demonstrates what's possible. Location aware sneakers remind us of Blue GPS shoes, or satellite-monitored footwear for hikers and soldiers who fear being kidnapped.

Taking it to the next level, what if Nike+, or a platform like it, was completely open source? The same thing that is happening to the desktop and mobile web would happen to what we wear on our feet. Innovation. Our shoes, what we do, and where we go with them would become part of the programmable web, APIs and all.

1. Five things to know about iOS 4.0 http://bit.ly/cRm17i

2. Make Coffee iPhone App For WiFi Controlled Coffee Machine by Mario Baluci http://bit.ly/ciUahq

3. Pingo is an interactive companion who keeps you entertained http://bit.ly/9YJh0z

4. Nike Lets Fans ‘Write the Future’ On Johannesburg’s Fourth Tallest Building http://bit.ly/aAVnOA

5. Skype Opens Up SkypeKit SDK To All Devices And Desktop Apps http://tcrn.ch/9queav

6. 'We didn't mean all smartphones would get NFC', says Nokia http://bit.ly/bNqZYo

7. Smartphones to fuel new habits in Germany http://bit.ly/aW0B94

8. Augmented Reality: Superimposed Game Stats in the Soccer Stadium http://bit.ly/9yKyeH

9. Study: GlowCaps up adherence to 98 percent http://bit.ly/bv6PKI

10. Can Augmented Reality Help Save the Planet? http://bit.ly/9yNXjI

Tweetworthy is a weekly roundup of the most shared tweets from @MobileBehavior. You can follow us on Twitter here.

As part of its Write the Future campaign, Nike has taken over Johannesburg's Southern Life Center building for an interactive LED light show.

"Write the Headline" allows fans around the world to root for their favorite World Cup player in a big way. The installation, almost the size of half a football pitch, displays submissions from Facebook, Twitter ( #writethefuture), QQ (a Chinese chat program), and Mxit (a South African IM app) that read from distances as far as 2.5 kilometers away.

Users vote on the player they think will 'write the future.' Personal messages are then projected on the city's fourth largest building. It's in examples like this that we see how far Twitter and Facebook have come in the past few years.

See Nike's Write the Headline here:

[via coolhunting]

Polar WearLink+ is a wearable heart rate monitor that is compatible with all Nike+ gear. It is meant to be used during exercise, where a user's heart rate is transmitted wirelessly to their Nike+ iPod Sport Kit or Sportband.

From the press release:

It will improve the training experience of Nike+ users helping them to understand how hard they are working in any given run. Users can see their beats per minute while they run with their Nike+ SportBand, or hear spoken feedback of their BPM during their Nike+ iPod workout. And after training, heart rate data can be transferred to the nikeplus.com web service. Users can track how long they ran in their target heart rate zone and see their heart rate progress over time.

If anyone can make wearable computing cool, it's Nike. The WearLink+ is just one example of how we are attempting to quantify ourselves. Mobile computing and a variety of sensors are what let us track and monitor our condition. Because our culture places such high priority on physical optimization, personal health and fitness is a natural entry point for these technologies.

Our web-based activities have been easily monitored; now with mobile phones, real world behavior is now measured by everyday consumers. Some examples include place history (where we go) and media consumption habits.Whether this data is collected actively or passively, it can present insights into our individual behavior. Smart recommendations and detailed personal information let us act accordingly.